


For the Good of the Order

by rosensilence



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: During Canon, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Huddling For Warmth, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Protective Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, there was only no beds, wampas ship it, working together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosensilence/pseuds/rosensilence
Summary: The ongoing search for the Resistance leads Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, General Hux, and a squad of Stormtroopers to the old Rebel base on Hoth. A wampa attack leaves Hux and Ren stranded in the cold with a damaged shuttle and only each other for company. Can they survive Hoth, and more importantly can they survive each other?
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 98
Collections: Kylux Secret Santa 2020





	For the Good of the Order

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Orangebutterfly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orangebutterfly/gifts).



> Merry Christmas orangebutterfly! Your ability to find and retweet/blog beautiful art always makes my timeline so much nicer.
> 
> I have taken some liberties with the structure of an Upsilon shuttle for the sake of this fic. Just consider anything that's out of place to be one of Kylo Ren's adjustments.

Six months had passed since the Resistance had disappeared from under the heels of their Gorilla Walkers on Crait and it had been six months of nothing but chasing rebel shadows across the galaxy without any success. First Order spies and scouts had found no sign of the princess general, the scavenger, or the stormtrooper turned traitor. Even the Knights of Ren had drawn a blank.

The Supreme Leader’s anger and frustration were growing by the day. Hux was certain he could feel it sometimes, rippling through the air like a cold wind whenever he had to tell Ren that another day had passed without any sign of the Resistance.

They were running out of locations to scout and time to find them. Hux knew that every day that passed gave the Resistance more time to get stronger, to consolidate their base, and replace the personnel and equipment they had lost.

It was the sound of a clock ticking down in his mind that led Hux to suggest that they send forces to destroy every known rebel base. The Resistance had taken refuge in the old base on Crait after all, it was entirely possible they would use that tactic again. The Empire had discovered more of the hidden rebel bases than the rebels knew and with Organa leading them, they had someone that had knowledge of all of those bases and might seek to reuse them.

Truthfully, Hux didn’t think they would be lucky enough to find the Resistance hiding in a base the rebels had abandoned thirty years ago, but it gave the First Order search a purpose and solid locations to target. Anything had to be better than targeting planets on nothing but whispers and wishes.

Ren had approved of the idea immediately and had even led several of the missions. He seemed to take great pleasure in personally tearing apart the old Rebel bases as if they’d personally wronged him and Hux supposed that on some level, they had. Ren’s feelings towards the old Rebels in his family were complicated and Hux would rather Ren destroy a few abandoned bunkers than any ships or personnel belonging to the First Order.

Hux did wish, however, that Ren would stop insisting that Hux accompanied him on these missions. Hux’s strengths didn’t lie in searching and destroying secret hideouts that hadn’t seen people in thirty years and he was far too busy to pretend they did. 

But, a direct order from the Supreme Leader was not to be denied unless you wanted to feel an invisible hand around your throat. Hux had felt that once and had no desire to repeat the experience. The Supreme Leader ordered and Hux obeyed, even though it was a waste of his precious time, skills, and quickly dwindling patience.

An order to join the search of the Rebel base on the ice planet of Hoth had tested Hux’s limits. After three hours of being planet-side in knee-deep snow, Hux was starting to wish he’d disobeyed Ren and taken the hand around his throat. Hux was pretty certain that the marrow of his bones had turned to ice by now.

They’d found nothing worth risking frostbite over, of course. Just a few abandoned terminals that no longer worked and were so old they’d been ancient even during the days of the Clone Wars. Not for the first time, Hux was left wondering how the Rebellion had ever defeated the Empire. It shouldn’t have been possible. It was also the reason why he was so worried about the Resistance—if the Rebellion could defeat the vastly superior Empire with outdated tech cobbled together with string, then anything was possible.

Hux was looking at an ice-encrusted bank of monitors when he heard the first scream. He couldn’t tell how far away it was as the icy corridors of the base made sound travel in the strangest of ways. The second scream was louder though, and he knew that wasn’t a good sign.

His cold fingers were fumbling for his comm link when the first frightened voices came through. There were so many competing noises that it was near impossible to hear what was being said, but there was no mistaking the sounds of blaster fire, panicked voices, and inhuman roars.

_Wampas_. Hux’s eyes widened in shock and harsh realization when his brain conjured up images of the giant white monsters that were native to Hoth. He had known there was a colony of them on the planet but there were no reports of them attacking human settlements before. They kept to their own territory and were lethal to anyone that dared trespass on theirs. 

_But this isn’t a human settlement anymore. The whole planet is now their territory._

Hux pulled his blaster from his pocket and was about to bark orders into his comm when he felt a strong hand clasp around his wrist and yank him off balance.

It was Ren.

“What are you—“

“We need to leave.”

Ren pulled Hux down a corridor that snaked through the west side of the base. Hux had no choice but to follow—Ren was stronger, and the ice beneath his feet gave him no traction to refuse. He could still hear screams, roars, and blaster fire echoing around the base and he had no idea if Ren was pulling him to safety or dragging him to the wampas to be their lunch.

“Do you know where you’re going? The wampas could be anywhere in this base—the sound echoes too much to tell.”

“I know where they are. I can sense their rage,” Ren said. “If we keep moving they won’t catch up with us.”

If Hux remained in the corridor, it was only a matter of time before the wampas found him. If he headed back, he could run right into them. He found it hard to trust the Supreme Leader but felt he had no choice.

“At least unhand me instead of dragging me through the corridor like a bag of droid parts.”

Ren said nothing but instantly released Hux from his grip.

They hurried down the corridor, the sounds of their footsteps drowned out by the reverberating sounds of the scattered battles that spread out around the base. The base was a labyrinth of tunnels and whenever they turned a corner Hux expected to be met with either a solid wall of ice blocking their path or a rampaging wampa tearing a squad of Stormtroopers apart.

But Ren didn’t lead them astray. At times it sounded like the battles were right next to them but they saw nothing of the fighting until one final turn led them to the cold and gray sky of the world outside the base.

Hux never saw the wampa coming, but Ren did. He ignited his lightsaber and sliced the beast’s head from its body before Hux even registered the impending danger. 

The wampa's body was on the ground and already collecting a fresh layer of snow upon it when Hux finally managed to choke some words out. “That was—,” he paused, choosing his words carefully, “nicely done.”

“There aren’t any more outside. Not yet,” Ren added. 

“What about the Stormtroopers?”

“They’re lost. The corridors of the base are too narrow to adequately fight a wampa and the structures are too old and fragile to withstand blaster bolts. If we’re lucky, the caved-in walls will have buried most of the wampas for now, too.”

“And if we’re not lucky?” Hux asked, dreading the answer.

“We should get back to the ship.” Ren’s choice to not directly answer Hux’s question was an answer in itself. 

The snow was falling heavily again and visibility was low—Hux couldn’t even see the perimeter the First Order had constructed around the base before they’d entered. If he’d thought it was cold inside the base it was nothing compared to the cold outside. The wind was cut through his uniform like daggers, despite the cold weather layer he wore underneath his regular uniform.

Ren lifted his hood to give his face some protection from the elements and within moments it was thick with a layer of fresh snow. He squinted as he looked at the horizon and then turned to Hux with an annoyed look in his eyes. “Do you know where the shuttle is?”

Hux sighed. Ren could navigate through a decades-old base while being chased by wampas, but couldn’t find a ship in a snowstorm. Hux had memorized the various known entrances and exits of the base before they’d landed, and by the size and location of the door they’d exited through he was pretty certain that he knew where they were in relation to their shuttle.

“It’s about one klick in that direction,” Hux answered, pointing to the right.

Ren didn’t acknowledge Hux’s answer. He simply turned and stomped away in the direction Hux had pointed to, his heavy boots leaving deep imprints in the snow. Hux turned up the collar of his greatcoat and followed his Supreme Leader.

**

Ren spotted the ship first, but it was Hux that noticed the damage. The guns mounted on the front of the Upsilon were in scattered pieces on the ground and half-covered by snow, rendering the shuttle defenseless if it were to be attacked.

But that wasn’t the damage that worried Hux. He was far more concerned by several long scratches that were etched into the Upsilon’s wings. If Hux remembered his schematics correctly—which he almost certainly did—then those scratches were dangerously close to both the ship’s stabilizers and some of the wiring that powered the ion engines. If either component had been damaged, they wouldn’t be flying for some time.

Belatedly, Ren noticed the damage himself. “Is that going to be a problem?”

Daylight hours on Hoth ran short and they were nearly at their end but there was enough light left for Hux to adequately access the damage. He peeled away part of the durasteel armor that the wampa claws had shredded to get a better look and was not pleased by what he saw. Several wires and pipes had been severed and one of the components that powered the stabilizers would need to be replaced if they had any hope of getting in the air and staying there.

“I can fix it,” Hux said confidently. “It won’t be a complete repair, but will be enough to get the shuttle airborne and remain so.”

“That will do. How long?”

“With the right tools, I can have the shuttle in the air in two hours. If I have to get inventive,” which Hux thought he probably would as it wasn’t standard procedure to travel with stabilizer components, “it will take four hours.”

“That’s not quick enough.”

Hux bristled. “Supreme Leader, I assure you that nobody could complete these repairs quicker—“

“It will be dark within the hour,” Ren explained. “It will be too dangerous to make repairs outside in the dark with a colony of wampas on the loose. They’re less likely to attack during daylight hours so if you can’t fix it before it gets dark, we will have to wait until morning.”

Hux looked at the damage again. He didn’t think it was possible to complete the repairs in an hour, but he was willing to try. “I’ll see what I can do.”

**

Hux soon discovered that he’d underestimated the effect of the cold and wind on making his repairs. Everything took three times longer when you were constantly blowing away snow and the cold made his fingers less dexterous and more clumsy than they would usually be. Even with Ren’s surprisingly useful help, he’d only managed to complete half of the necessary repairs to the stabilizers and hadn’t even begun the repairs to the engines.

It pained Hux to do so, but he had to admit defeat. Even in a First Order hangar with all the necessary tools, components, and assistance at hand, it would have been virtually impossible to finish. That he’d managed to get so far with only a standard tool kit, makeshift components, and the assistance of Kylo Ren was quite impressive.

Hux dropped his wrench into the toolbox at his feet with a sigh of frustration. Sunset on Hoth was a stunning display of pink and red hues that stretched across the sky in broad waves that reminded Hux of some of the monitoring systems on Starkiller Base. Hux didn’t see many sunsets from his vantage point on the bridge of whatever star destroyer he was assigned to, but he was glad to see this one.

Even if it was a sign that his time had run out.

“We should get inside the shuttle. I can sense the wampas circling around us. They have too much of an advantage in the dark for us to defeat them all,” Ren said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Hux took one last look at the sunset before picking up the toolbox and following Ren back onto the shuttle. He made sure to not only close the landing ramp but to also seal it shut and triple-check that it was sealed correctly. Only a blast from Starkiller Base or the Death Star would open that door now and although the wampas had been able to penetrate the outer layer of the shuttle’s durasteel armor, Hux knew it was impossible for them to cut a hole through all of the layers that was large enough for them to get inside. 

As long as he stayed in the shuttle, Hux was safe from the wampas. But, would he be safe from Ren?

“We will finish the repairs at first light,” Ren instructed. “As long as the ship can get in the air, I will see us back to the Steadfast.”

Although Hux hated to admit it, Kylo Ren was the best pilot he had ever seen. He knew that if there was only one pilot in the First Order that was skilled enough to keep their damaged shuttle in the air, it was Ren. He could do things with TIE Fighters that shouldn’t have been possible and Hux had full faith that Ren would get them safely to the Steadfast.

The Steadfast was in orbit above Hoth. The snowstorms that raged Hoth made sending comms back to the star destroyer patchy and unreliable but Hux knew it would be there, waiting for the return of the Supreme Leader. 

Eventually, there would be a rescue shuttle sent down when nobody returned, but the conditions on Hoth were too dangerous to idly wait to be rescued. Their best chance of getting away before either hypothermia or a wampa’s teeth sank into their flesh lay in Hux’s repairs and Ren’s flying. 

And them surviving through the night.

Upsilon shuttles didn’t carry much equipment as they usually either accompanied transports or were intended only for short trips from a star destroyer to a planet. Ren’s personal Upsilon had been modified in places to suit Ren’s orders, but unfortunately, cold-weather equipment had not been on the list of adjustments. 

It did, however, still have a fully stocked first aid station and this was where Hux headed after sealing the landing ramp closed. He ignored the various bags of bacta and bandages that cluttered most of the compartment in favor of grabbing blankets and ration packs. They would need warmth and food if they were to see the morning, although Hux wished they had more of both. He passed a blanket and ration pack to Ren without a word and they were accepted with silence and a curt nod. 

It wasn’t until Hux sat down on one of the benches that ran along the length of the hold that Ren said something. “We should spend the night in the cockpit. It’s smaller and has an extra layer of reinforcement. With the blaster shields down over the viewport, it should be less cold than the hold.”

Hux noted that Ren didn’t say the cockpit would be warm. 

He couldn’t argue with Ren’s logic, however. The hold was designed to carry a squad of Stormtroopers and any firepower they required so it was nothing more than a vast, empty space made from durasteel. The landing ramp had been down for the hour they’d spent repairing the shuttle and it had resulted in both a small covering of snow and bitterly cold wind entering the hold.

The cockpit, by contrast, had been closed off from the hold since they’d landed. It was smaller and had paneling on both the walls and floor that made it less frigid and harsh than if the durasteel had been left exposed. Hux followed Ren into the cockpit and immediately noticed the difference. It wasn’t warm—far from it—but was noticeably a few degrees warmer than the hold. Hux knew that in a few hours' time, those few degrees could make all of the difference.

Due to the damage to the ion engine, the Upsilon was down to emergency power only. That meant that only the most important systems were still functional, but thankfully that included the security systems, a low level of lighting, and the oxygen systems. Hux switched on the emergency lights and shut the blaster shields to cover the red-tinted glass of the viewport. They were as safe and secure as they could possibly be.

When Hux turned away from the panel of buttons and switches in front of the co-pilot, he was surprised to see Ren sitting on the floor. The Upsilon cockpits were quite spacious for their class as they were built to be manned by a five-person crew. They could be safely flown with less, but all of the cockpits were built so that five people could comfortably work without getting in each other’s way.

The space behind the pilot’s seats was large and open and Ren was making the most of it as he stretched out his long legs. He looked oddly comfortable with his cape wrapped around him and a blanket haphazardly covering his legs.

“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable on one of these seats?” Hux asked as he gestured to the pilot’s chair.

“They’re made for flying, not for relaxing. If you want to sleep on one of those chairs you can, but I’d prefer the floor.”

Hux had not spent as much time in a pilot’s chair as Ren had but he knew that they were designed to keep a pilot straight-backed and alert, not relaxed enough to sleep. However, the floor didn’t look particularly appealing either.

“Are you seriously going to sleep on the floor?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve slept on the floor of a shuttle,” said Ren with a shrug of his shoulders. 

Hux remained standing stiffly by the co-pilot’s seat. He glanced over the console and all of the controls it held just so he had somewhere to look other than at Ren. Hux had known that these searches of abandoned Rebel bases were an exercise in futility, yet he’d suggested them purely because doing something to find the Resistance was better than doing nothing. He’d even been the one that had suggested Hoth but he’d never expected it would result in a long and cold night trapped in a cockpit with Ren.

Maybe he should have refused Ren’s order to join the mission to Hoth and taken the phantom hand around the throat after all. At least that agony would have been over in a matter of minutes—this one was going to last for hours.

The next time Hux chanced a look at Ren, he saw that the man was now lying fully on the floor underneath one of the blankets Hux had found. He could see that Ren had removed his cape and spread it on the floor beneath him and he was staring at the ceiling, looking more at peace than Hux had ever seen him.

_He really is going to sleep on the floor_ , Hux thought to himself. 

Hux considered his options. He could try to get comfortable on a pilot’s chair, bed down on the floor, or remain standing until the dawn, which wasn’t due for—Hux paused and tried to remember the mission briefing about Hoth—another fourteen hours. Hux had worked many double, and even triple, shifts aboard star destroyers and had been on his feet for every minute of them, but that was with tasks to complete and places to walk to. He doubted that even he could stand still with nothing to do for fourteen hours, despite his discipline and training.

The pilot chairs were a better option, but Ren was right when he said that they weren’t built for comfort. They were designed to keep the body upright and stiff and to support the back and shoulders while hours were spent gripping onto flight controls. Hux’s left shoulder had never been quite the same since a spirited sparring session with Phasma a few weeks before she perished alongside the Supremacy.

That left the floor. There was enough space for Hux to comfortably stretch out and although he knew the floor would be hard, he had spent years sleeping on equally hard beds during his years as a cadet. It was a discomfort he could easily bear.

Less easy to bear, was that the only space left on the floor was uncomfortably close to Ren. 

The cockpit may be spacious, but Kylo Ren was the kind of man that could fill any space he entered—no matter how large. If Hux curled up on his side and pressed against the base of the pilot seats, he could maybe put a meter between them. Hux never wanted to be that close to a man as dangerous as Ren that could kill him in so many ways, and that was especially true when he was in a state as vulnerable as sleeping.

But, it was pretty evident from their time working together on the shuttle’s repairs that although Ren was skilled with a wrench, he lacked the knowledge to fix anything without being told what to do. That was typical of pilots, Hux had found. They were too concerned with what a ship could do to learn how it did it.

That gave Hux a little confidence that he’d make it through the night alive. Ren needed Hux to make the repairs, and Hux needed Ren to fly the shuttle. Neither of them would be able to escape Hoth without the other, which meant they were both safe.

Reluctantly, Hux shrugged off his greatcoat and neatly placed it on the floor next to the backs of the pilot’s seats. He felt an increase in the cockpit’s chill factor immediately but was glad to have something underneath him as he sat on the floor. 

As soon as Hux was seated, Ren unceremoniously threw the other blanket at his face. “Finally made your mind up?”

Hux thought Ren’s self-satisfied question didn’t deserve the energy it required to voice an answer. Instead, he shook out the blanket, lay down on his side with his back to Ren, and pulled the blanket over his head. He heard Ren’s mocking laughter and briefly considered whether murdering Ren and taking his chances with the wampas was really such a bad idea after all.

Hux resigned himself to a cold and uncomfortable night but at least it seemed like it would be a quiet one. He had feared the possibility of suffering through an awkward few hours of trying to look anywhere but at Ren before they tried to sleep. Or even worse—an awkward few hours of Ren trying to talk to him. Instead, it seemed Hux would have a long night of hiding under a blanket with only his own thoughts for company and Hux was willing to take that over the alternatives.

Hux closed his eyes. He could hear the quiet hum of the cockpit’s emergency lights and if he strained his ears he could just make out the sounds of the wild winds outside. He couldn’t hear anything of Ren and lying in the dark like this made it easy to believe that he was alone and anywhere other than on the floor of an Upsilon shuttle.

The one thing that reminded him of where he really was though, was the cold. Arkanis had never been a warm planet and star destroyers were climate-controlled to always be cool, but neither had ever been as cold as the cockpit was starting to feel. Hux pulled the blanket against himself a little tighter to try and stop any cold air from getting underneath it but he knew it was a futile gesture. The air had become cold enough to cut through the blanket, no matter how tightly he wrapped it around himself.

Hux cursed the wampas for damaging the shuttle and the Resistance for hiding so well that coming to Hoth had seemed like a good plan. He also cursed Kylo Ren for green-lighting the mission and himself for suggesting it in the first place. If he made it through the night without his trigger finger succumbing to hypothermia, he was going to blast Ren in the face and—

“You’re projecting your anger louder than the wampas are.”

Hux’s eyes shot open. He had hoped that Ren was asleep already, but it appeared he wasn’t that lucky. “That’s because I am angry, Ren.”

“Is that why you’re hiding beneath that blanket?”

“I’m not hiding,” Hux said from between gritted teeth, “I’m trying to stay warm.”

“It’s only going to get colder before first light.”

“I’m aware of that, Ren. If you don’t have anything useful to say, please be quiet.”

“Remember who you’re speaking to, General. I’m still your Supreme Leader,” Ren replied. His voice was low and dark—a sure sign that Hux was edging too close to the line of insolence. 

Hux rolled over so that was facing Ren and pulled his blanket down just enough so that his eyes were no longer covered. The emergency lighting in the cockpit was dim, but it was adequate enough for him to see Ren. The other man lay on his back with the blanket haphazardly pulled up to his neck and he had a look of relaxation on his face that Hux wasn’t used to seeing from Ren.

How could Ren look so calm and at ease when they were stranded on the coldest planet Hux had ever known and there was a colony of unstoppable beasts circling around them? Ren lost his temper when his caf was too hot to immediately drink—why wasn’t he losing his temper at yet another failed mission to find the Resistance and spending a cold night on the floor of his command shuttle?

Hux knew that he could find the formula for immortality and he’d still not live enough years to understand Kylo Ren.

Ren’s gaze remained fixed on the ceiling when he next spoke. “Maybe next time we’re in danger I’ll leave you behind to face it alone.”

There had been a question niggling at the corners of Hux’s brain since they’d escaped the Rebel base together, but the stress of finding the damaged shuttle, attempting repairs, and spending the night in such cold—and close—circumstances with Ren had stopped the question from surfacing. Now, it was the only thing Hux could think about.

Why had Ren grabbed his arm and pulled him to safety? There had been animosity between the two of them ever since Ren had been assigned to the Finalizer six years ago and it had been a mutual hatred that Supreme Leader Snoke had taken joy in fostering and growing. Hux had never been ignorant of Snoke’s meddling, but Ren was just so easy to hate and to blame for all of the First Order’s defeats.

Hux had no doubt that Ren equally hated him. Ren had always been more susceptible to Snoke’s manipulations than Hux and Hux knew that his dismissal of the force and its powers only fueled Ren’s hatred of him. As easy as Ren was to hate, it was even easier to push Ren’s buttons to make him angry and Hux took great delight in hitting as many of those buttons as he could.

So why had Ren saved him? Hux was more than aware that it wasn’t the first time Ren had stepped into a dangerous situation to save them both. It was starting to become a habit of Ren’s and it confused Hux more than trying to understand the force ever had.

Hux hated feeling confused.

“Why did you help me escape the wampas in the base? We lost a squad of Stormtroopers in there—you left them to die.”

“The Stormtroopers were scattered throughout the north and east sides of the base. That was where the wampas entered. I probably could have found a couple of Stormtroopers—maybe even four or five—but with the rate some of the tunnels were being blocked by cave-ins, an escape would have been unlikely.”

Ren paused before continuing. “The risk wasn’t worth taking just for some Stormtroopers.”

Ren’s utter disregard for Stormtroopers had always been a source of contention between them, but Hux had to agree with Ren’s assessment. A squad of Stormtroopers was easily replaced, but Kylo Ren wasn’t.

It didn’t escape Hux’s notice that Ren hadn’t answered his question. “That answers why you didn’t try to find any Stormtroopers. It doesn’t answer why you found me.”

Ren rolled onto his side so that he was facing Hux. The emergency lighting cast shadows across Ren’s face that cloaked Ren’s mouth from Hux’s view. He could still see Ren’s eyes though, and they were staring right at him. Hux refused to back down from that stare, even though he wanted to. Having Ren’s full attention on you was more intense than staring at any sun could ever be.

“I was in the room next to you when I realized what was happening. I knew if we were quick we would be to escape from the west exit before any wampas caught us.”

Hux was certain that was true, but it still didn’t fully answer the question. “If you had left me behind, nobody would have known. I would either have died by wampa or being buried alive. If I’d been able to find the exit and fight my way out, I never would have suspected that you could have rescued me but didn’t.”

“Most people would say thank you instead of questioning why.”

“I don’t trust you enough to not ask questions.”

Hux wasn’t sure if the look that passed over Ren’s face was one of amusement or annoyance. Maybe it was a mixture of both. “If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t ask wampas or snow to do it for me. I’d do it myself.”

When Snoke was still Supreme Leader and pitted them against each other for his own amusement, Hux knew that Ren was under strict orders not to kill him. _He is too useful to the Order_ , Snoke would say and Hux supposed that was true when Starkiller Base was being designed and built. Starkiller was Hux’s creation and he was the one that made it a reality.

Then Starkiller Base had been destroyed and Snoke murdered in such quick succession that it had taken weeks for Hux’s head to stop spinning. One day Snoke was congratulating Hux on how cleanly Starkiller had destroyed the Hosnian system, the next Starkiller was in pieces and Snoke was lying dead and dismembered on his throne room floor.

The death of Snoke had signaled the death of Ren’s promise not to kill him. When Hux had confronted Ren in that destroyed throne room, mere feet away from their dead Supreme Leader, he’d thought Ren would kill him there and then. He could still remember how it felt to have Ren’s force grip around his throat, to see his vision begin to turn black at the edges as his lungs gasped their last breaths.

But Ren released him and let Hux live. Ren had let him live for the last six months. In fact, Ren hadn’t harmed him once since that day. Other officers and Stormtroopers had felt Ren’s wrath, but not Hux. Not even when Hux challenged Ren in the high council meetings or any private conversations.

“Why don’t you want me dead?” Hux asked.

It suddenly struck Hux that this was the longest conversation he’d ever had with Ren that hadn’t descended into either veiled threats or shouting. Hux found that he didn’t have the energy for either—not in this cold—and wondered if Ren felt the same.

Ren thought for a moment before answering. “All of the officers in high command would stab each other in the back for more power and to please me. You’d also stab any of the other officers in the back, but it would be for the good of the Order, not yourself. I know you want to be Supreme Leader, Hux. I know you think it should be you instead of me. But I also know you care more for the First Order’s glory than anyone else in the galaxy.”

Hux was surprised at Ren’s assessment of him. He’d always considered Ren to be more action than thought, to be the kind of person who analyzed physical strengths and weaknesses and ignored the mental ones. He had never expected to hear such an accurate assessment of his own motivations voiced by Kylo Ren.

“You’re more useful to me alive than dead,” Ren continued, “and you have more value to the First Order than the rest of high command added together.”

Hux hadn’t heard much praise in his life. His father hadn’t known the meaning of the word and First Order training focused on correcting your failures more than celebrating your successes. Maybe that’s why Ren’s words—as minor as the praise contained in them was—made Hux feel a little bit warmer.

Hux wasn’t sure if it was the cold or his unfamiliarity with the sentiment that made his response so difficult for his lips to form. “Thank you.”

Even in the muted darkness of the cockpit, Ren’s shock was easy to see. Hux supposed that Ren was as unaccustomed to gratitude as Hux was to praise.

They fell into a comfortable silence. Hux was surprised at how comfortable it was as he’d never once felt comfortable around Ren before. Yet here he was, stranded, freezing, and lying only a meter away from someone he considered to be his fiercest rival and most threatening enemy. If Hux were to loosen his death grip on his blanket and reach out, he’d be able to touch Ren—they were that close.

But, Hux was too cold to let any part of his body leave the cocoon of his blanket. He could see his breath now and tried to recall if Starkiller Base had ever felt this cold. He didn’t think it had, but then again he’d never spent a night outside the warmth of the military base they’d built there.

“Does First Order training include cold weather survival?”

On a different day, Hux would have been annoyed that Ren didn’t know the contents of First Order training, but on this day it didn’t seem important. “We’re trained in how to survive all extreme weather conditions.”

“Think back to that training. Is there anything more we could do to keep warm?”

Hux paused. It had been more years than he’d care to admit since he’d completed his survival training and it was difficult to think quickly when your brain was only concerned with how cold it was. “If we could locate a heat source, that would be useful.”

“Emergency power doesn’t include climate control, does it?”

“No,” Hux said through gritted teeth. As soon as he returned to the Steadfast, he’d make sure that was changed. “Can you use the force to make a fire?”

“Fire can’t be created out of nothing, Hux. Not even by the force. I could probably set something on fire but there’s nothing flammable on board other than our clothes and these blankets.”

Hux briefly considered the benefits of setting fire to the blankets, but quickly realized that any heat they produced would not last for long. They would be more effective as blankets than as kindling.

“Then the only heat sources on this shuttle are us,” Hux concluded.

There was something in Ren’s gaze that told Hux that was the answer Ren had been waiting for all along. Hux remembered his instructor at the academy explaining how sharing body heat could be the difference between life and death in situations of extreme cold and—

Hux stopped. _Sharing body heat_. Is that the conclusion that Ren had been waiting for him to arrive at? He shuddered, and not just because of the cold. 

“Survival is all that matters, Hux,” Ren said sagely. “Do whatever it takes.”

Hux didn’t need to hear that from Ren—he’d been surviving his entire life. Hux had outlived his father and any First Order personnel that dared to oppose him, regardless of how many schemes it required or how dirty it made his hands. Surviving was Hux’s specialty.

That was one of the many similarities he shared with Ren, Hux supposed. Ren had severed all ties with his Rebel family, destroyed Skywalker’s temple, and killed his own father to be where he was today. Ren had survived, too.

Hux rolled over so that his back was to Ren. He could bring himself to share body heat with the man, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at Ren while he did so. He shuffled back a little to partially close the gap between them and waited for Ren to close the rest.

He heard Ren shuffle around a little behind him and was about to ask what Ren was doing when he saw the edge of a blanket flap over his shoulder. It was Ren’s blanket.

“We’re close enough to share,” Ren said, his voice quiet, deep, and entirely too close. 

Hux supposed that was true now. He let go of his blanket with his left hand and used it to pass the edge of his blanket to Ren behind him. He heard more shuffling before it finally seemed that Ren had managed to rearrange both the blankets and himself to his satisfaction.

Hux had to admit that he felt warmer already. He could still feel the cold in the air and knew it was waiting for him, but it barely seemed to touch him from his position underneath two layers of blankets and with Kylo Ren at his back. Hux closed his eyes and thought that maybe, he would be able to get some sleep.

Then he felt a warm blast of breath against the back of his neck.

Hux looked over his shoulder and was rendered speechless when he saw Ren’s big brown eyes staring back at him. He’d expected that Ren would turn away and present his back to Hux, as Hux had to him, but Ren hadn’t. Instead, Ren was facing him—chest to back—and it was a more intimate position than Hux had been prepared for.

He was even less prepared for Ren to shuffle closer still. It wasn’t just Ren’s body heat that Hux could feel now—it was Ren himself. Ren’s chest was against his back and all sensible thoughts evaporated from his mind. Hux hadn’t allowed somebody to get this close to him for years and it put him on edge. It was such a vulnerable position, to have your back to someone and be unable to see what they were doing. And for that person to be Ren—

“Relax, Hux.” Ren seemed to be speaking directly into his ear. Hux did his best to suppress a shudder. “Didn’t I just tell you that you’re more use to me alive? If I kill you I’ll not only lose my heat source, but also the only person on this planet that can fix this shuttle.”

Hux took in a deep breath and forced his muscles to relax. He hadn’t realized how much he’d tensed when Ren had crept behind him but now that he’d let go of all of the tension in his body he was surprised at how comfortable he felt. Ren was no longer a menacing threat at his back but a reassuring presence—an extra layer of security against both the cold and the beasts that roamed the planet.

“And I need you to pilot the shuttle,” Hux replied, “so I can’t kill you, either.”

“Then we’re at a stalemate. We need each other to get off this planet because our skills complement each other.”

Hux had never considered it that way before, but he supposed that Ren was right. And it wasn’t just when it came to leaving the planet, either. Hux was well-versed in battle tactics and was as capable with a blaster as anyone in the First Order, but he wasn’t battle-hardened like Ren was. He’d never led an army into battle or faced down overwhelming odds on his own and still emerged victorious. 

But Ren had.

The Stormtroopers and TIE Pilots had a level of respect for Ren that Hux knew he could never achieve. They feared Ren, but they respected him as a warrior and a fighter, as someone that would stand beside them and fight for the First Order. The Troopers and Pilots respected Hux also, but as a tactical commander, not a peer.

If they could work together—truly—the First Order would be unstoppable.

Hux gripped his part of the two blankets tighter. “This is an interesting understanding we’ve reached. All it took was the lives of a squad of Stormtroopers, a damaged shuttle, and a night in the extreme cold.”

Ren laughed. Hux had never heard him laugh before. It sounded slightly strained, as if Ren wasn’t used to making the sound anymore but it seemed to originate from Ren’s gut and rumbled through his chest. Hux found himself laughing too, although he thought his laughter sounded more hysterical than Ren’s did.

Hux felt Ren move around once more and once settled, he could feel Ren’s nose press against the nape of his neck. Without thinking, Hux pressed back into Ren’s welcoming warmth, his last burst of laughter on his lips as he did so.

“If we worked together,” Ren whispered, “the First Order would be unstoppable.”

Hux was pleased that Ren had arrived at the same conclusion he had, but after so many years of animosity, it was difficult to let the hatred go. “What are you proposing, Supreme Leader?”

Hux felt Ren’s previously relaxed body stiffen slightly at the sound of his title, but he quickly relaxed again. “I’m proposing that we take this sense of understanding and cooperation back to the Steadfast with us instead of leaving it buried in the snow.”

Hux had learned at a young age not to rely on or trust anyone. It was in the nature of First Order officers to stab each other in the back, just as it had been for Imperials. However, Ren hadn’t grown up in that culture of spying and treachery. There was no logical reason to believe that Ren’s offer of a truce was legitimate, but Hux believed it all the same.

Maybe it was because he wanted to believe it. Maybe it was the things Ren had said to him since they’d bunkered down on the floor of the command shuttle. Maybe the cold had frozen his critical reasoning and common sense.

Or maybe, it was because the thick, heavy, and protective arm that Ren wrapped around his chest was just too comforting.

“For the good of the Order,” Hux said. He placed a hand over Ren’s larger one and felt Ren smile against his neck.

Ren agreed. “For the good of the Order.”

**Author's Note:**

> I did write another 1,000+ words after this ending where they fix the shuttle and return to the Steadfast, but this seemed like a better and more natural ending.


End file.
